promises that taste like wind
by Aiko Isari
Summary: [AU] What is the point of a power source you don't even understand? Part of 'our infinity'


It was all about power, in the end. It was the main thing, the important thing. An old man sings them a tale of heroism and great partnerships. Gomamon giggles halfway through, derisively amused. He goes ignored, but it can't be helped. The Digimon hear his joviality and think of so many dead friends.

 _Where were you?_

"There's something for you to find in Server," says the old man before he departs. "You'll need it more than you understand."

That's the most useful thing he says.

* * *

"Let's go."

The words held promise, but the sea was still purple. Evil could be beaten but never eradicated, so long as it existed in every heart. All of the Digimon knew that. Leomon, who had sounded so sincere and open and raw, the Digimon remembered him best as a white-eyed killer.

They weren't sure they wanted to trust him with a wooden raft. But how else could they get there? Their evolutions wouldn't last that long. Not yet. They were too young. And carrying the humans too.

(They wouldn't look at Takeru, wouldn't look at the person who had both doomed and saved their little Patamon.)

Taichi has barely slept. Agumon worries even though he won't admit he's worrying. They all worry about these little humans who don't belong here but are stuck here.

"Let's go," the human boy repeats and Agumon thinks of his own flame-passion-desire when they had to survive. "She's not here and this place is safe right now. Let's go."

"We should try to go back," offers one of the girls, pink hat tight about her ears."Go home."

"Not without Hikari," Taichi insists. His voice is almost cringeworthy, desperate. How does he even now?

The same way Gabumon knows when Piyomon needs a good cry or Gomamon knows what fish will kill them to eat. It is an instinct. It is a fact of life.

It is a fear of death.

"We'll find her," Agumon says and he thinks he sounds brave.

"Poyoyoyo," agrees Poyomon from Takeru's tiny, chubby fingers. "Poyoyo!"

Yes, that was the other reason they would do that.

"You have a friend over there," Takeru says and everyone turns in surprise. "An eighth friend?"

"Poyo!" Poyomon's unabashed trust is so like he was before, and yet so much cleaner. It's like the killing never happened. It's like the shameless purification and death and everything had never been at all. Was that what death meant for them, really? Well that was good, wasn't it?

What about the humans?

Gabumon tests the raft with his weight while Takeru chatters with their little savior.

"She got dragged away in the water," Gomamon supplies unhelpfully without translating for everyone else. "During a storm. Either she's over there or she died a lot." The boy with the blue hair flinches and Takeru's eyes water. Gomamon fakes his guilt. "Sorry, Jou. But that's what happened, you know."

"Well," Sora mutters. "We know _now_."

Silence. Then Taichi sits expectantly on the raft near the canteens and leaf bowls.

Leomon watches them all with alive eyes this time, and yet it still hurts to look at him. To know he had once tried to cut them up and break them. "You should go," he says. And there's something else in the way he said that. "There is nothing for you now."

Never the less, he's right.

* * *

The raft bobs uneasily as it goes through the water. No one really speaks, they're too busy hanging on. Gomamon occasionally attempts to swim but once they could no longer see File Island, he gives up.

The Digimon talk uneasily to each other during the quiet times. They can't handle the silence, can't handle the lack of action. It's almost claustrophobic, fourteen people trapped on a bundle of wood. There is no space to spar, barely any to sleep, nothing to hit. The Digimon could evolve and let loose but then they'd lose the boat and never come back. No one wants to think of the consequences of that. But they can't sleep. Death tends to come knocking when they do.

Yet they can't help themselves. They all doze, until something roars and swallows them whole.

* * *

Agumon hacks up seawater, coughing for air. He was a fire-breathing dinosaur; they did not do this mess with water. They did nothing of this with water nonsense. No wonder he hadn't wanted to be on this boat. A small hand rubs at his scales and he stiffens up until he hears Taichi's voice by his ear holes.

"Back rubs help nausea," he says, his voice soft. "Well," the human laughs. "it helps my sister anyway."

The boy's voice is oddly choked and it helps Agumon relax. He feels belonging for the first time, and it's a flame in his gut. "Thanks," he says.

Taichi nods and straightens up. He turns back to the whale and waves a thank-you.

That thing had tried to kill them, Agumon thinks. He looks at the others, at tattered limbs, and knows his fellow Digimon are thinking the same thing. And maybe the humans are too. They look too tired for him to be able to tell. And yet Taichi waves, like they are old friends. Maybe they are friends, they helped him and he helped them. And yet…

And yet.

Agumon lifts his claw to wave and it feels supremely uncomfortable. His friends watch him.

"All right," Taichi says as Whamon disappears. "Let's take shelter for the night."

"What?"

What.

Taichi nods at everyone's surprised looks. It's still daylight out, and sure, they're tired. That doesn't mean they shouldn't make ground while they can. The humans look so bewildered at what seems like a perfectly reasonable suggestion though. Perhaps they aren't used to him making those. Sora looks at him with odd concern.

Finally, the redhead (Koushiro, he thinks it would be easier if they had separate species names.) nods. It's a good idea. They know about as much about Server Continent as a grain of sand. Still, it is odd to hear calm logic after excitable idealism.

But it's an idea so they take it.

They end up finding a small, abandoned town, and hide there in the houses. It's more luxury than the Digimon remember having in years. They sleep easier than they thought they would, and it make Gabumon shiver with memories of cold.

The kids are on and off awake. More than once Piyomon wakes to Sora holding one of the necklaces sealed in the whale monster's stomach, looking at the empty pendant.

What use is an item you can't use?

None, that's what.

They might as well be thrown away.

Then, Taichi's starts to shine, mixed with a light in his pocket.

Someone, somewhere, starts to cry. And they hear it. They all hear it.

They hear the promise of power.

Agumon is tempted to ignore it, but he's already here, with the people who give him strength. And he needs to be here anyway. He might as well keep working.

If they were giving them all free stuff, why not take advantage of it?

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_ And another for the our infinity verse. Man this series is weird. I'm enjoying it though! Bit of a transition oneshot though. Ah well.

 **Challenges:** What-if challenge, Diversity Writing Challenge D99. Write a story that starts and ends with the same word, Prompts In Steps 4.07 - bloodshed, Ultimate Sleuth Challenge 0.4 - write about the meaning of friendship.


End file.
